


Hairdye

by flightinflame



Category: The Avengers (2012)
Genre: Angst, Established Relationship, F/F, Ficlet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-14
Updated: 2012-12-14
Packaged: 2017-11-21 03:23:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 940
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/592891
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flightinflame/pseuds/flightinflame
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Pepper helps Natasha dye her hair before a mission.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hairdye

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TriffidsandCuckoos](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TriffidsandCuckoos/gifts).



> Warnings: Angst, non-explicit nudity.

Natasha didn't normally curl up on people's laps when she was relaxing. It always felt false, forced somehow, as she tried to pretend to be small, and vulnerable, and everything she was not. Normally, if it was needed, she'd sit beside them, and rest her head on their shoulder - it was a position she often found herself in with Clint, or Coulson, their fingers tangling in her hair if it had been a bad mission, smoothing the strands, a physical anchor as the world around her drifted away.

She made exceptions for Pepper. She always had. When she had met her, she had found that this was a woman who got her in a way no one else, male or female, had. When the truth had come out, rather than being horrified, Pepper had took it into her stride, and smiled, and Natasha had been impressed. After New York, with the city in ruins and the rubble still smoking, she had turned up with coffee for everyone, and Natasha had found herself paying a little more attention than was strictly necessary to the CEO.

They were both women in a male world, both knew what it was like to be underestimated, to be considered less because of your gender, to be assumed to just be a pretty face. Anyone who dealt with them quickly learned the truth. And it was that that meant she could close her eyes, and lay with her head in Pepper's lap, letting her stroke her hair, plait the curled strands.

"I'm going to miss this..." Pepper whispered, her voice soft.   
"It's not good to become attached to material things." Natasha answered, but there was no cruelty in her voice, just acceptance. "Especially not me."

There was no answer from Pepper, no attempt at a denial or a rebuttal, just the silent acceptance that yes, being involved with Natasha was a risk, and one day their luck would run out. Natasha was grateful for that. She couldn't have stayed with Pepper if she'd argued over that point.

The news about this mission had come as more of a blow to her than she had expected. She was used to transforming her look, being whatever would make it easiest to get close to the target. Changing her hair was as natural as altering her wardrobe. It was just like Clint upgrading to whatever new arrow would be most suited to the mission. 

What was different this time, and she was irritated that this was the problem, was that Pepper liked her hair. She laughed about it, but yes, Pepper liked the way Natasha's hair looked, and had spent days choosing the best dresses for her to bring out the colour. When Natasha wore those dresses, she didn't feel like a gun, didn't feel like she was just another weapon. It was different from how modelling dresses for people had been before. Natasha pushed those thoughts aside. She had to leave in a few hours, and her hair needed to be black. That was the priority right now.

Pepper gently raised Natasha's shoulders, before getting up, and Natasha followed her to the bathroom, climbing into the tub and rinsing her hair, letting Pepper ready the dye. Pepper stood behind her hands massaging along her scalp, soft kisses brushing against her shoulders. Natasha permitted herself to lean into the touches, and sat still as they waited for the dye to take, Pepper's fingertips massaging her shoulders. If she heard Pepper's voice shake slightly as she damaged something she loved, well, that was something she wouldn't mention, and if Natasha's face was wet that was just spray from the shower.  
"Why black?"  
Natasha shook her head, and Pepper swallowed slightly and nodded. There'd been other missions, with simpler answers - red would stand out too much, her face had become too well known, but there was honesty here, and that hurt. Pepper was tense, but she never once asked Natasha not to go. 

Instead, she tested the temperature of the shower on her wrist, then started to rinse out the dye. The water that Natasha was sat in turned black, and as it swirled down the drain Natasha tried not to let herself think. She was quiet, and Pepper's voice washed over her like the spray - it was rambling about Tony mainly. She still heard, but she wasn't focused.

Eventually, it was done, and Pepper helped her out of the bath, wrapping a towel around her waist, draping a second over her shoulders and then starting to dry her hair with a third.  
"I guess..." She kissed Natasha once, on the corner of the lips. "I guess we're not the two redheads any more..."

"Fallaces sunt rerum species." Natasha answered with the slightest hint of a smile on her lips, and Pepper nodded. Pepper understood, of course she did, because she was Pepper, she watched the tapes and she could manage this, managed more on an everyday basis. She was a woman who ran an ex-arms company, who could tear people to shreds in the boardroom whilst wearing a brand new pair of Jimmy Choos. She knew what it was to be made into something you were not, and to twist that making into something you could use, that was more than you had ever been before.

Appearances could be deceptive. Just because the curls were black now, and she was leaving Pepper for she didn't know how long, to be the girl on some mob boss's arm, they were still themselves. They were still in control. She brushed her lips to Pepper's cheek, and left for the waiting unmarked car.


End file.
